Ahead of its World Premiere at the 68th BFI London Film Festival on Saturday 19th October, Netflix are thrilled to announce that Dermot O’Leary and Jordan North will appear in cameo roles in Locksmith Animation (Ron’s Gone Wrong) and director Simon Otto’s (How to Train Your Dragon trilogy) upcoming animated feature That Christmas.
Mr Chop (Dermot O’Leary) and Mr Hack (Jordan North) run the Christmas tree stall in winter, trim your hedges in the summer and spend a little too much time in the pub in spring and autumn!
Based on the charming trilogy of children’s books by beloved multi award-winning writer/director Richard Curtis, That Christmas follows a series of entwined tales about family and friends, love and loneliness, and Santa Claus making a big mistake, not to mention an enormous number of turkeys!
The film stars Brian Cox (as Santa) alongside Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker and Bill Nighy, as the residents of a charming seaside town where things turn upside down one Christmas. That Christmas will feature an original song titled “Under The Tree”, written and recorded by Ed Sheeran.
That Christmas marks Richard Curtis’ first foray into animation, serving as the film’s writer and executive producer, and also the feature directorial debut of renowned animation veteran Simon Otto. Nicole P. Hearon (Moana, Frozen) and Adam Tandy (The Thick of It, Detectorists) are producers.
Key Credits:
Directed by Simon Otto
Written by Richard Curtis & Peter Souter
Produced by Nicole P. Hearon p.g.a, Adam Tandy p.g.a
Exec Produced by Mary Coleman, Natalie Fischer, Julie Lockhart, Elisabeth Murdoch, Bonnie Arnold, Lara Breay, Sarah Smith, Rebecca Cobb, Richard Curtis, Colin Hopkins
Starring Brian Cox [Santa], Fiona Shaw [Ms Trapper], Jodie Whittaker [Mrs Williams], Lolly Adefope [Mrs McNutt], Alex Macqueen [Mr Forrest], Katherine Parkinson [Mrs Forrest], Sindhu Vee [Mrs Mulji], India Brown [Bernadette], Zazie Hayhurst [Sam], Sienna Sayer [Charlie], Jack Wisniewski [Danny], Rosie Cavaliero [Mrs Beccles], Paul Kaye [Yirrell], Guz Khan [Dasher], Andy Nyman [Mr Beccles], Kuhu Agarwal [Nisha], Bronte Smith [Eve], Freddie Spry [Teddy], Ava Talbot [Scarlett], with Bill Nighy [Bill] and Rhys Darby [Mr McNutt].
Soundtrack by John Powell
Song by Ed Sheeran
Filmmaker Quotes:
Director Simon Otto said: “Becoming an animator had been on my Christmas wish list ever since I was a child and watching animated movies was one of the biggest Christmas traditions in my family. But never could I have imagined that one day I would get the chance to direct a Christmas film written by the one-and-only Richard Curtis and collaborate with some of the most iconic voice talents. Watching this cast bring life to these heart-warmingly funny tales and infuse them with the magic of animation is truly a dream come true. I hope That Christmas becomes a cherished tradition for audiences worldwide.”
Writer and Executive Producer Richard Curtis said: “This has been the most amazing adventure, my first animated film. It’s been especially exciting to see the whole world I imagined come to life beyond my wildest dreams – and populated by a dream bunch of actors, their wonderful voices turned into such rich and funny characters.”
About Dermot O’Leary:
Dermot O’Leary’s extensive career across the Television, Radio & entertainment industries has established him as a household name. Dermot is currently seen presenting ITV’s This Morning, alongside Alison Hammond every Friday. When not entertaining viewers through the telly, Dermot can be found via the radio waves as he kicks off the weekend for listeners on his regular BBC Radio 2 show, The Dermot O’Leary Show.
Dermot has hosted events such as The National Television Awards for 10 years, Soccer Aid since 2010, the British Academy of Film & Television Awards alongside Edith Bowman, The BRITS with Emma Willis & the Prince of Wales’ BAFTA award-winning The Earthshot Prize in 2021 with Clara Amfo. You can also catch Dermot presenting Reel Stories, a BBC series that takes an exclusive look at the careers of iconic musicians.
He’s the writer of successful children’s literature, Wings of Glory and the Toto the Ninja Cat book series. After selling over half a million books, Toto has been snapped up for a children’s TV series adaptation.
As Patron of the London Irish Centre, Dermot was awarded the prestigious Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad 2020 for his contribution to charity. Dermot is also an ambassador for both UNICEF and CAFOD, as well as championing several other charities close to his heart.
About Jordan North:
Jordan North is a presenter who is the current host of the Capital Breakfast Show. He came to be known by the nation when he was a part of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here in 2020.
Since then he was a regular on Saturday Night Takeaway and has hosted two BBC Three shows in ‘Go Hard or Go Home’ and ‘Project Icon’. As well as this, he fronted his first documentary where he looked into ‘The Truth about Vaping’.
You will also know him for his hit podcast “Help! I sexted my boss” that has regularly held the no.1 spot in the podcasts charts and has had 3 sell out tours to date.
About Simon Otto:
Simon Otto makes his feature directorial debut on That Christmas. Prior to joining the team at Locksmith Animation, he directed the Love, Death and Robots episode from Season 2 ‘The Tall Grass’, and developed, executive produced and served as the Supervising Director on the successful Netflix series A Tale Dark & Grimm. He also directed episodes on the Netflix animated series Dragons: Race to the Edge and Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia.
Otto spent over 20 years working at DreamWorks Animation, most notably as the Head of Character Animation on the Oscar®-nominated How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. In that role, Simon oversaw the character animation and was instrumental in designing and developing the look of the characters, their personalities, and the overall style of the animation, while also working in the story department as a story artist. He first joined DreamWorks in 1997 to work on the groundbreaking The Prince of Egypt and worked as a Supervising Animator both in hand-drawn and CG animation on many of the studio’s features including, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and the Aardman co-production Flushed Away.
Born and raised in Switzerland, Simon studied animation at the prestigious Les Gobelins Animation School in Paris, France.
About Richard Curtis:
Richard Curtis is a film writer and director, responsible for films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Mr Bean, Love Actually, The Boat That Rocked, Trash, About Time and Yesterday.
In the other half of Richard’s life he is co-founder and vice-chair of Comic Relief, which he started after visiting Ethiopia during the 1985 famine and led to the fundraising event, Red Nose Day. He has co-produced the 16 live nights for the BBC since 1988 and the charity has made over £1.3 Billion for projects in the UK and internationally during that time. In 2015, he helped bring Red Nose Day to the United States with the partnership of NBC and Walgreens – where it has so far raised nearly $150 million to help children in the USA and round the world.
Richard was a founding member of Make Poverty History, the campaign for the MDGs and worked both on that and on Live 8 in 2005. In 2015 he helped found Project Everyone to work to make the Global Goals famous and effective – and is now a UN Advocate for the SDGs.
Richard is also co-founder of Make My Money Matter, a brand new, people powered campaign fighting for a world where we all know where our money goes, and where we can demand it’s invested to build a better future.
